Sam Smith Scenario
Sam Smith is a business owner who frequently travels internationally. He is a large man with wavy black hair and a heavy beard, and while he is of European descent, he is frequently mistaken as Middle Eastern. When Sam was checking in at the Los Angeles airport for a business flight to Spain, an employee of the Federal Air Transportation Security Department decided that, because Sam had no carry-on baggage and was dressed in a business suit, he appeared suspicious. The agent detained Sam for more than 2 hours in a locked room, causing Sam to miss his flight. During the period Sam was detained, he was not permitted use of a telephone and was handcuffed.
Sam has retained the attorney for whom you work to bring an action for damages due to these events. Consider the following:
- What kind of action should Sam bring?
- Who should the defendant(s) be?
- What remedies are available?
- Do you think Sam will prevail in an action against the agency? Why, or why not? Be sure to justify your answer
You have learned that judges are absolutely immune for judicial acts. Assume that a judge hears a criminal case involving a defendant who once publicly embarrassed the judge. The judge finds the defendant guilty, although there was a great deal of evidence presented by the defense that tended to show that the defendant could not have committed the crime. The judge sentences the defendant to the maximum penalty allowed.
Consider the following:
- Should the judge be immune from a suit claiming that her decision was biased? Why, or why not? Do you agree?
- Assume the judge was biased because the defendant was an African-American male who had once been intimate with the judge’s minor daughter. Can the defendant prevail in a §1983 action against the judge? Why, or why not?
- Do you think the concept of judicial immunity should be eliminated or changed? Why, or why not?
- What does the law in your home state say about judicial immunity?
…………Answer preview……….
Sam should sue the agent and the agency for the wrongful detention. It took the agent more than two hours to determine that Sam Smith was not indeed a suspect. The grounds of his arrest may be valid but the time taken to detain him was wrong……………..
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